Get Action!

Over the last two years, there have been a multitude of mechanical failures regarding the inter-islander ferries between the North and the South Island, which has brought great attention to the government. KiwiRail has requested a one-point-seven billion dollar funding request for a project to see the ferries repaired and ensure capacity for train transport as well.

Unfortunately, the government has declined the funding request, which could seriously impact the travel potential of goods and services, not to mention general transport, between the North and South island.

For this week’s Get Action! Sasha spoke to Dave Macpherson from The Future is Rail about a petition he started to ensure replacement Cook Strait ferries can carry trains.

If you’d like to sign this petition, click here.

Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif was the subject of a widespread disinformation campaign during this year’s olympics, with commentators and netizens from right-wing spaces alleging that Khelif had been assigned male at birth and should not have qualified to compete in the women’s Olympic boxing tournament.

No medical evidence has been given to suggest that Khelif had XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone and the International Olympic Committee issued a statement saying that Khelif fulfilled all the requirements needed to compete in women’s boxing. 

However, this did not stop our own Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters, from contributing to the disinformation campaign against Khelif, making a statement on X, formerly twitter, saying that Khelif had “failed a gender test”, which is why NZ first fought for gender rules in sports to be in their coalition agreement. 

In response, concerned citizens and takatāpui, Louisa Wall and Samantha Green, launched a petition on our action station calling for Peters to be held accountable for his comments and for legislative framework to be established for officials who peddle disinformation. 

For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Louisa and Samantha about the petition and their calls to the government.

To sign this petition, click here:

Amidst the global student protests campaigning against the involvement of Academic Institutions in Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, many universities in Aotearoa have organised similar protests, calling on their universities to disclose their investments and divest from the State of Israel.

Following a recent protest at Massey University in solidarity with Palestine, students found out that the University had invested more than $7,000 in Israeli government bonds within the past three months. 

For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Dinithi Bowatte, a student at Massey and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, who organised a petition calling for the university to disclose its investments and to divest from the State of Israel.

If you’d like to sign this petition, you can find it here: 

You can also keep track of Students for Justice in Palestine at Massey on @massey.sjp on Instagram.

On the 19th of December 2022, Farzana Yaqubi, a 21 year old law student at AUT, was murdered by a man who had been repeatedly stalking her and sending her threatening messages on social media. In the months leading up to her murder, Farzana made multiple police reports with evidence of her experienced stalking, urging law enforcement to intervene. However, her reports were effectively disregarded and treated as low priority, as there are no official laws in Aotearoa that criminalise stalking.

Farzana’s murder triggered a call to the government from numerous women’s rights advocates across the motu to come up with more effective legislation to criminalise stalking and establish more effective preventative measures in law enforcement.

For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke to Leonie Morris from the Auckland Women’s Centre, to discuss a petition calling for the official criminalisation of stalking.

If you're interested, you can sign the petition here:

https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/protect-women-make-stalking-illegal-1